Jonestown and Peoples Temple – A Black Woman’s Refuge Turned Cult

Don’t drink the Kool-Aid.

I don’t remember the first time I heard the phrase, or who said it to me, but instinctually knew its meaning due to context clues. Don’t blindly follow the masses. What was lost upon me was the connotation and the history behind the phrase itself. It wasn’t until the idiom was used about my mom’s religious denomination – Jehovah’s Witnesses – that I began to question what was wrong with said Kool-Aid.

“A cult committed suicide by drinking poisonous Kool-Aid,” a friend explained, “Why a group of people would do that, is beyond me.”

But it wasn’t just a group killing, it was a massacre. In fact, up until the attacks on September 11, 2001, the mass suicide at Jonestown represented the largest number of American civilian casualties in a single non-natural event – an estimated 900 people willingly drank poison and took their own lives.

The word cult has always been thrown around when discussing the tragedy. It implies that the people involved were brainwashed into following the inner workings of some maniacal faction. But after doing a bit of research, I found that of the estimated 900 people, 71% of them were African American and 48% were African American women. Now, this is not to say that Black women don’t get caught up in cults… but black women USUALLY don’t get caught up in cults! So how could a white man from Indiana, who started his own religion, garner the trust and adoration of about 460 black women? 

A BENEVOLENT COMMUNITY

The Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ, shortened to Peoples Temple was a religious movement formed in Indianapolis in 1955 by Jim Jones. Over the span of two decades, the church opened locations in Ukiah, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. In 1973, the church made its transition to the Fillmore district in San Francisco – a predominantly African American neighborhood. 

The church’s rise to prominence occurred during the post-civil rights, post-black power, and post-Vietnam era. Jones refined the language of social justice, racial equality, and anti-sexism during a period when the possibility of freedom from institutional oppression seemed only an illusion. Initially seen as an uplifting experience, Peoples Temple was able to unify the members around the common cause of social justice. Jones used the Marxist liberation theology to create his own doctrine called “apostolic socialism.”  It combined the best parts of the Christian social gospel with egalitarianism and communalism, actualized in an array of social welfare programs in exchange for its congregations’ membership.

The church began to gain media attention and after Jones praised the radical group Symbionese Liberation Army and invited its leaders to Temple meetings, police suspicion rose. In 1974, Jones migrated his congregation to Guyana to avoid government persecution and media scrutiny. Guyana – an English-speaking socialist country with a predominantly indigenous population and Black leaders – would provide black Temple members a peaceful place to live. The commune was located on 3800 acres of jungle located west of the Guyanese capital Georgetown – it was named Jonestown. 

By 1978, the commune’s population was about 900 but the most difficult aspects of the community were obvious yet ignored. The small neighborhood was isolated with low soil fertility. The nearest body of water was located 7 miles down a muddy road that could only be reached by foot. The members were required to work 7 days a week from 6:30 am to 6 pm to be a part of the greater good. Even while living under extreme circumstances, Jones members still considered Jonestown to be a utopia – a benevolent communist community, dedicated to socialism, total economic, racial, and social equality.

Was the likelihood of social and racial equality worth the strenuous circumstances that these people were placed under? Surely there had to be more going on within the said church to brainwash scores of people into leaving the country for a chance at cultural exclusivity – was it really just running from oppression?

THE ROLE OF THE BLACK CHURCH

The desire for social equality was enough of a reason for the minorities of the time, by why specifically were black women the biggest ethnic group of the church? While considering black women were the most steadfastly religious groups in the nation – with 74% claiming religion was extremely important – black women were the backbone of Peoples Temple with the deepest investment in the philosophy and mission of the church. And with the widening gap between Blacks, Whites, and Latinos, and the downward mobility of the black middle class, the role of religion was amplified in Black lives.

Others who experienced the hypocrisy of other black churches firsthand began to question religion and what it meant for their lives. Juanell Smart, a former member of Peoples Temple spoke of what attracted her to the church. “[I] had given up on religion, church, and ministers because I had been married to a Pentecostal preacher for a number of years and knew the ins and outs of the church.” She was disillusioned with the hypocrisy and corruption of organized religions, but when she attended her first Peoples Temple service, Jones’ criticism of abusive relationships resonated with her.

Jones was well-versed enough to convince the masses. His denigration of the Bible forced one of the most reverent races in America into a new reading of ethical obligation. Jones questioned the existence of a fair God amid the injustice of a world where there was extreme poverty and obscene wealth. Peoples Temple criticized the persistence of anti-black racism against African Americans – “the nation’s most devout Christian population.” He created a doubt of God in the minds of his entire congregation, and with the social situation of America at the time, he succeeded. 

But Jones’ straying from the Bible was Peoples Temple’s fatal flaw. “If he’s only been more of a God-fearing Christian, instead of a false prophet who set himself up as God, then surely the massacre wouldn’t have happened,” explained Hyacinth Thrash – the sole survivor of the commune.

A BLACK PANTHER PARTY REBOUND

In a period when most churches were led by white supremacists, Peoples Temple’s leadership was able to capitalize on black people’s yearning for inclusion and cultural validation. Jones pushed the radical progressive rhetoric of black liberation struggle. He manipulated the revolutionary aspirations of young African Americans reeling from the fading promise of the Black Power Movement.

Jones' collection of multiethnic membership became Peoples Temple’s mini-United Nations, and it deflected any criticism of Jones’ true motives. The church’s “association” and praise of Angela Davis, the Black Panthers, the American Indian Movement leader – Dennis Banks – and Nation of Islam lent it credibility among younger, more politically progressive and radial black people who were disillusioned with traditional black religious organizations. Of the estimated 900 deaths, about 229 victims were between the ages of 11-20 and about 144 victims were between the ages of 21-30. And although Peoples Temple provided social programs, health care, housing and jobs for its members, it did not establish any lasting relationships with like-minded movements.

In a nation shaped by minstrelsy and black appropriation, Jones’ performance of black liberation struggle was familiar and yet safe. Jones was one in a long line of white minstrels who honed black idioms and Pentecostal religious practices. He combined his white power and privilege to create the faux illusion of black power and acceptance towards the most downtrodden race of the country.

Imagine the severity of the violence and prejudice that would make a place such as Jonestown seem to be a refuge.  It is laughable to say that blacks were duped or even “brainwashed” into staying in Peoples Temple’s “cult” of the white savior. That narrative ultimately undermines the interplay of passion, desire and revolutionary longing that informed their involvement and ultimate migration. And by the time they all migrated to Guyana, they were imprisoned in their decision of loyalty to Jones and to the church – a decision that ultimately led to all of their deaths.